Millie Mackintosh Shares Her Fitness, Workout And Diet Rules

From intense weight lifting sessions to holiday workouts and scoffing six bowls of pasta with Gizzi Erskine, here's how Millie Mackintosh gets THAT body of dreams...

All long lean legs, toned arms and killer abs, Millie Mackintosh has a body most of us only dream of or pin to our #fitspiration Pinterest board. But forget those celebrities that claim to do nothing and eat carbs all day and still flaunt abs of steel, what we love most about Millie is that she is really honest about hard she works for her figure. Her Instagram feed is like a book of visual evidence with image after image of Millie at pilates, spinning and ballet barre classes or videos of her lifting weights in the gym. We caught up with her to find out how she does it....

On becoming a #fitspiration...

'I wasn't always into fitness. I was really unsporty at school and had an overall unhealthy lifestyle. Then I started working on Made in Chelsea and I met Stephen so suddenly I had the pressure of having to do a lot of photoshoots and red carpet events. I never felt like I needed to lose weight but I wanted to look my best and I wanted to feel my best. So I got a personal trainer and started working out. My trainer Richard Tidmarsh got me into weight training and totally changed my mindset that it was only for men or that it would make me bulky. He also changed my attitude to food when he explained that you can't outtrain a bad diet. I realised I needed to stop eating junk everyday and began to learn about nutrition.'

'I prefer to work out first thing. I plan my sessions around where I need to be that day. Say if I have a shoot in Soho, London I'll go to a spinning class at Psycle. Or I have a boxing trainer who comes to my house so I'll get up at 7am, box and then start my day. It's really hard to set goals as I travel a lot but it's important to be consistent. As long as I'm doing something everyweek then I can't be too hard on myself. When I'm away from home I'll work out in the hotel gym, or go for a long walk or just do 20 minutes of exercise in my room. Kate Hudson said that's her secret - 20 mins a day - and it's true it doesn’t have to be an hour to make a difference. You just need to do something that gets the heart rate going and make sure you are using the right muscle groups.'

'My favourite workout is pilates, I do an one-on-one class on a reformer. I like it because it's all about building strength and breathing. You feel the burn but I also find it quite relaxing as you need to be very focused. Ballet barre is also really good for toning. The only cardio I can really handle is spinning. Or I'll do a tabata class which is like short bursts of high intensity interval training. I like to workout with friends on the weekends and then go for lunch. I often do the Skinny Bitch Collective with Zara Martin. It's tough but fun too. Stephen (Professor Green) and I use the same boxer trainer but we don't workout together. If we're on holiday together we might go for a walk together but that's about it.'

'I don't normally wear makeup to workout in. Even if I'll have a spot I'll still go barefaced. My trainers have seen it all. When I workout I don't look pretty and my hair doesn't look nice. I'm basically a big sweaty mess. If you do want to wear makeup I'd just do a tinted moisturiser, a waterproof mascara and a bit of lipbalm. Keep it fresh. You don't want to look too made up at the gym.'

On recovering from a heavy workout session...

'Epsom salts in the bath are really good. And nice long massages. Its really important to have sports massages if you workout a lot as if your muscles get tight you can injure yourself. Rest days are important too. I like to do a whole class of yoga stretching on Saturdays.'

'I like to vary breakfast. Some mornings I have eggs and avocado with rye bread. Other times I cook tomatoes, then break some eggs into them with chilli and garlic and bake them in the oven. But I don't like to have eggs everyday so other mornings I'll have COYO coconut yoghurt with muesli and berries or porridge with buckwheat flakes rather than oats. I tend to buy green, cold-pressed juices rather than make them myself as I'm very busy. For lunch I tend to have a sushi box or a salmon or chicken salad. I like to get something that has protein, vegetables and some kind of a grain like quiona or lentils as they fill me up. I try to avoid bread or a pasta based salads.'

No time to make breakfast in the mornings? Whiz up on of Arabella Greenhill's InStyle-approved NutriBullet recipes...

'I don’t have a certain day of the week that is my cheat day. It depends how much I work out. Sometimes I cheat everyday. But normally I try to eat quite healthily during the week and then less so at the weekend. I love going to Streetfeast. Breddos Tacos, Yum Bun and Le Bun are all my favourites. Le Bun do a fried chicken roll which is amazing. Me and Gizzi Erskine text eachother photos of food all the time. We have the same taste and lots of similar weird food fetishes. We know to maintain the bodies we have we can't eat certain things all the time. So when we want an all out meal we'll go to a restaurant, order six pasta dishes and share them.'